Author
Topic: Belwar plans an ant farm (Read 2358 times)

"Well, the options seem limited to me." Trillomore said. "You get Hemo to cast the spell upon you at the right time, or we all of us together can work out a sort of temporary enchantment that we can place upon an item that you specify, and that you can trigger yourself at the time when you wish."

"The second option would require your participation in the casting of the enchantment, and it's my guess that you wouldn't be very eager to participate in such a magical rite."

"Well the simple story is this:" Trillomore elaborated. "We have the ability to create a sort of imprint of a spell on an item, kind of charging that item with the spell's effect. You would be able to call upon that effect by focusing upon the item and the effect that's been imprinted upon it.”

“So in this case, we might imprint a Tongues spell upon, say, a piece of jewelry that you might carry with you. Any time within a week that you want to use the effect of that spell, you would focus on that jewel, and on the effect of the spell, and you would cause that spell to come into affect upon you.”

Trillomore seemed happy with this explanation. “There are some difficulties with castings of this sort, though, and the imprinting process would take all three of us here, working together in my lab for a number of hours, and we would require a sufficiently high quality item upon which to imprint it…I like to use emeralds myself, but we can use crystal, rubies, mithril…almost any sort of similar material, so long as it is high in quality. You just need to be sure that this item won’t be broken before the imprint is consumed.”

He looked at Belwar, trying to judge whether the dwarf was understanding and accepting this idea and explanation.

"Sounds a lot like tha enchantin of weapons, I suppose. I dunno what I might have tha we could cast on. Me Axe is Mithril, but holdin it alof doesn't sound like it'd inspire trust, if ya know what I mean. "

Trillomore laughed at Belwar's allusion. "No," he said. "You don't really have to hold the object aloft or anything, you just need to be in contact with it. Skin contact would make the triggering easiest, but if there's a layer of cloth between you and the object, that won't be an issue. A layer of mail, however, would prevent your being able to trigger the effect, so you wouldn't be able to hold it in a gauntleted hand, for instance. And a nice, high quality mithril axe would work just fine."

He looked at Belwar for a moment then, and then asked, “What do you think? I note that you’re not very comfortable with the casting of spells; are you up to helping cast one yourself?”

"Wull," Belwar said with a shrug. "If tha's what we gotta do, then, I guess I need ta be ok with it. But let's say this all goes as planned, an they move inta the chasm. Wha do we do aboot communicatin with em then? Do we hex everyone's axes or somethin? Mebby have an ambassador from the keep actually learn their languange?"

Trillomore affected a rather non-committal shrug and said, "I'm not really sure, but I think this is a one-step-at-a-time affair. And naturally, there are limitations to the dweomer that we are contemplating”

“You no doubt grasp that this slight enchantment is one that can only be used a single time, and moreover is time-terminated.” He looked at Belwar meaningfully. “That of course speaks to your overall concern, but you’ll be able to communicate with the Garachi for a few hands only, then the magic will be spent. This casting takes time though…it will likely take the three of us the rest of the morning and the better part of the afternoon to complete the casting, and we’ll need you fully vested in it.”

“You can appreciate then, that this is not the sort of thing that we take upon us lightly. We can’t simply provide everyone with a similar ability. We’ll have to discuss with Coris how that relationship might be solidified.”

“Do you have any questions before we commence? Do we have your full commitment to the ritual? Be warned that without your full commitment, not only will we fail, but we run grave risk to ourselves and to this Keep.” He straightened up as he spoke, and his pleasant facial features became hard and somber, and finally he stared calmly into Belwar’s eyes.

Trillomore noded in understanding. The elf had seen Belwar's reservations written on other's faces before. "Then we shall perhaps get started." He rose from his chair and moved towards the back left corner of the room. He turned towads the right, and from this angle, as Trillomore decended into the floor, Belwar could suddenly see the ramp that Trillomore had spoken of earlier.

There was indeed a ramp at the back of the appartment, and it led right down through the floor of the appartment, and into the mesa below the keep.

The stonework was remarkable. Far beyond the ability of human, elf, gnome, or even dwarf. The working of the appartment's floor, and that of the wall, were such that the ramp was completely invisible up to the point that you were actually ON the ramp.

They descended into the earth, rotating about the interior of the keep's mesa, and as they decended the light got gradually brighter and a breeze presented itself to Belwar's nose. At length, the corridor's wall on the left opened up to the outside and Belwar was presented with a magnificent view that skimmed along the tops of the forest trees to the north.

Trillomore and Targyle led Belwar further along, until they came to a door in the passage, which Trillomore opened and entered.

Belwar followed the two elves into what appeared to be functioning library and laboratory.

You want to pick up where Belwar emerges later in the day from the appartment? Or is this at it's end?